The United States has seen 2,140 military deaths in Afghanistan. If coalition military fatalities were included, that number would be 3,206. Many of those deaths, particularly as of late, have resulted from so-called “green-on-blue” attacks by Afghans wearing police or military uniforms. These insider attacks accounted for at least 14 percent of coalition casualties this year. They have also resulted in restrictions on some joint operations between NATO troops and Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan is not on a path to democracy.

Consider the recent case of a young woman, Mah Gul, who was beheaded by her mother-in-law and husband’s cousin, in western Afghanistan, for refusing prostitution. The recent case in Pakistan involving a 14-year-old girl and advocate for girls’ education who was shot in the head by the Taliban made international headlines. We also can’t ignore that violence against women, ethnic minorities and dissenters is shockingly commonplace in Afghanistan and neighboring countries. The entire region is one in which abridgement of human rights is typical.

There is an unfortunate propensity to believe that democratic ideals are a natural consequence of free elections. In Iraq, the Shia regime that replaced Saddam Hussein after the U.S. invasion is hardly one that fosters individual rights. Iraqi law enforcement agencies have beefed up a systematic persecution of gays. It makes exceptions for a man or family for “disciplining a wife” as long as it follows “certain limits prescribed by Islamic law.” This raises the issue of family honor, in which women and men have been murdered for tarnishing the family reputation.

Mah Gul’s death is important. While the perpetrators have been arrested, crime against women in Afghanistan is commonplace. And often, women themselves help to perpetrate the crimes, such as in this gruesome case of a mother-in-law beheading her daughter-in-law. Moreover, President Hamid Karzai, to gain political support, often bends to the will of religious fundamentalists.

Much of the time it is the rights of women that are compromised in a nation where socio-cultural and religious elements cannot be changed without a massive cultural and religious revolution. Certainly the United States and its allies have not been able to change the minds of many Afghans – or Pakistanis or Iraqis, for that matter – to embrace democratic ideals. President Barack Obama pledged U.S. support in Afghanistan through 2024. But the future for human rights in Afghanistan, indeed, for the entire region, looks bleak.